Many organizations have started to invest in social media marketing. However, no business likes to invest in a venture/strategy without measuring the return on investment (ROI). In case of social media, there is one very effective method to measure the ROI and that is customer acquisition. Social media sites provide wonderful opportunities to companies to find new customers. These sites are particularly useful for smaller businesses and entrepreneurs. It comes as no surprise to find that nearly half of small businesses around the world have acquired customers through social networks. Social media websites have come as a boon for small business houses that can acquire new customers and advertise their products/services at a much lesser cost.

The success of a business is very much determined by its ability to attract new customers to its fold. That explains the emphasis on social media sites by companies. These websites are where businesses get to meet as many different people as possible, know their interests, contacts and spread the information that they are open for business. Quite a large number of companies are known to provide budgetary allocation to advertising on social media sites. There are very few ways better than social media marketing to let the word out about your business to attract new customers. Internet is a global phenomenon and using it, business houses can reach millions if not billions of people. Organizations that are yet to venture into online social networks are seriously behind the times and missing out on lucrative opportunities.

Social media sites connect people from all over the world on a single platform. Irrespective of the locations, genders and nationalities, social media users are constantly connected with one another. Popular networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia, YouTube etc have become the new advertising engines. Their growth is simply phenomenal and many companies have made perfect use of these sites and added millions of customers. Businesses can attract customers by creating profiles, describing their business, post pictures if applicable and making full use of all the other options made available by the social media sites.

Organizations can find and keep new customers by indulging in relationship marketing. It is important to develop relationships with target audiences. Options like making friends, starting a community and creating fan pages etc are perfect ways of expanding the reach of the business.